Rent it
Summary
Well-shot yet wildly unremarkable, this indie feature is still a step in the right direction in terms of its professional appearance and as a launching point for its unknown talents.
Plot: Gabriella (Sarah Chang) goes out for vengeance after a dangerous hybrid kills her family. She teams up with a team of demon hunters called “The Slayers,” and forms an unlikely partnership with with a hybrid killer named Bolo (Vincent Soberano), looking to redeem his humanity. Together, this unlikely troop tangle up with Naga (Temujin Shirzada)) and Gundra (Mekael Turner), hybrid warlords of the supernatural underworld. What they don’t realize is that they are all pawns in a twisted plan to lure and destroy the best demon hunters in the land.
Review: After a rather diverting and well-done animation used to set up the whole world, this film is non-stop action from beginning to end. Unfortunately, while never derivative, it doesn’t always engage because it’s going so damn fast.
However, that’s also a huge plus as nothing feels drawn out and for a $5 million Filipino production, it’s hardly anything that you couldn’t bare to watch in a cineplex or on cable TV. The acting isn’t shabby but it’s also not quite there for most of the performers as they’re primarily better at telling the story and performing the stunts than they are creating moods or delivering lines for their characters; either way, not bad or impressive, just enough to tell the story.
The action gets to be well-choreographed but due to the repetition and not always using spectacular angles, it can be a little too drawn out just to fill the 70 minutes. This film has nothing working against it, it’s just that still could use some fine-tuning.
But nevertheless, writer-director-star Soberano is bound to come up with a far more accomplished work after setting the bar high here. It wasn’t as high as it could be and it never dropped low but it’s clear that this impressive stunt cast (whose credits include previous projects with Soberano as well as blockbusters like Wolf Warrior 2 and Wonder Woman) even know that the best is yet to come.
Think of this film as a job interview: this isn’t them at their best hour but you have no doubt that once you actually give them said job that they’ll continue to earn their keep, grow, evolve and be the next best thing. This is a preview of growing artists who will accomplish many a better thing and for a preview, this isn’t half bad! DarkCoast releases Blood Hunters onto all digital platforms (Amazon, Vimeo, Vudo and more) this March 17.
